Wednesday, September 16th
This sounds like a communication from some distant planet—which I mean as a compliment.
Olivia Block, Aberration of Light, 2015
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
2015
Monday, September 14th
sounds of Zimbabwe
This I could listen to all day.
Thomas Mapfumo, “Chikonzero”
Live (studio performance), Eugene, Oregon, 2015
MVP? That’s easy—guitarist Gilbert Zvamaida. In his hands melody (or “lead”) and rhythm are one.
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the beat goes on
2,100 posts—and counting.
2015
Sunday, September 13th
back to church
“Until I Die,” Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., 2001
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lagniappe
reading table
In a sense sickness is a place, more instructive than a long trip to Europe, and it’s a place where there’s no company, where nobody can follow.
—Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964), letter, 1956
2015
Saturday, September 12th
old school
Skip James (1902-1969), “Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues,” 1931
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lagniappe
art beat
Vivian Maier (1926-2009), Chicago (Maxwell Street), 1962
2015
Friday, September 11th
It was, I recall, a cloudless morning in Chicago, as it was in New York. I had a hearing scheduled in federal court, but then, after the second plane hit, court was cancelled. We sat in front of the TV, unable to turn away.
William Basinski, “Disintegration Loop 1.1,” 2001
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lagniappe
reading table
Photograph from September 11
by Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012, MCOTD Hall of Fame), translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw BaranczakThey jumped from the burning floors—
one, two, a few more,
higher, lower.The photograph halted them in life,
and now keeps them
above the earth toward the earth.Each is still complete,
with a particular face
and blood well hidden.There’s enough time
for hair to come loose,
for keys and coins
to fall from pockets.They’re still within the air’s reach,
within the compass of places
that have just opened.I can do only two things for them—
describe this flight
and not add a last line.
2015
Thursday, September 10th
sounds of Norway
Maja Ratkje (voice, electronics) & Lasse Marhaug (electronics), live, Norway (Oslo), 2012
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lagniappe
reading table
Fragile the minutes. / Fragile the line between wonder / and woe.
—Linda Gregerson, “Pajama Quotient” (The Selvage)
2015
Wednesday, September 9th
serendipity
When this came on the radio the other day (WKCR, Columbia University), background became foreground.
Luciano Berio (1925-2003), Differences (1959)
2015
Tuesday, September 8th
sounds of Yemen, and Uganda, and Colombia, and Cambodia
The Real Hip-Hop, 2015
2015
Monday, September 7th
tonight in Chicago
This guy will be at the Experimental Sound Studio.
Paal Nilssen-Love, drums, live, Japan (Chiba), 2010
music clip of the day 